OFF SIDES

CHAPTER 1

DANICA

“Welcome to Willow ‘Bad Things Happen Here’ Bay,” Oz greeted me as he walked through the room.

Wow.

“What’s up your butt this morning?” I mumbled through a bite of scrambled eggs Ford had made for me.

“I’m not ready for these early mornings,” he grumbled.

“What you mean is you’re not ready to get out of bed when my best friend is right beside you all nice and cozy against you.”

He wrinkled his nose. “When you say it like that it sounds wrong.” His face fell and he moved to sit beside me at the table. “Please don’t tell me you have a problem with us being together?”

I couldn’t stop the eye roll even if I tried. “Of course, not. You know I love the two of you together. Now.” I felt bad for even expressing that I thought my twin brother wasn’t good enough for Lo in the past. There was no one better for her than him, and vice versa.

“Okay,” he shook his head, and went back to the stove where he plated his food before returning. “You’re okay, aren’t you?” He eyed my plate of food.

“How can I turn down food when Ford is over here making me gourmet meals just to make sure that I eat?” Ford was going to be world famous one day with the way he cooked. He could make anything spectacular.

“Seriously, I don’t know how you all ever agreed to let him move out, so I could live here.”

Oz’s brows turned into angry slants. “Because we love you.”

“You love Ford too,” I shot back. I wasn’t sure why I was trying to pick a fight. Actually, I did. I was nervous about my first day of practice. It wasn’t easy coming onto a team your senior year. It would be like I was a freshman in their eyes.

“Yes, but I didn’t share a womb, nor do I have an unbreakable bond with him. No one is more important to me than you.”

It was on the tip of my tongue to say that Lo was more important, but I didn’t. She should be. Lo was who my brother was planning to spend the rest of his life with. And I knew it would make him feel guilty if I told him that fact. He’d lived with enough guilt over the years.

Fin shuffled into the room with his eyes barely open, and a long strand of black hair hanging in front of one eye. He didn’t speak as he moved in front of the stove and made himself a plate.

“I need coffee,” he grumbled as he sat down at the other end of the table.

“Don’t we all,” I answered back, forking a strawberry and popping it into my mouth.

“Do you have your gear ready? We can drop you off at the field on the way to practice.”

Pushing my plate away, I stood. “Are you trying to practice with me for the day that you have to take your kid to kindergarten or something?”

Oz and Fin eyed my plate.

Well, too fucking bad. Maybe I would have eaten it all if I could have eaten in peace.

“Dani, you need to eat.” Oz looked down at my plate and then back to me. “Especially since you’re going to be practicing today.”

“You don’t have to tell me,” I gritted out. “Why don’t you worry about your own life, and let me try to navigate my own?”

“That’s not fair,” he shot back.

Maybe it wasn’t, but I didn’t need a constant reminder of all the ways I’d fucked up while I was at UCLA by myself. I’d let too many of the wrong people get into my head, but now all I wanted was to be able to think for myself. I didn’t need my brother, his friends, or my best friend constantly hovering over me to tally up my daily intake of calories.

Stabbing one last piece of egg, I shoved it in my mouth and ate it while I glared at Oz. I turned my gaze to Fin only to see he was looking at his phone. At least, his attention wasn’t on me. “There. Are you happy?”

“Yeah, I’m happy,” Oz barked out as he backed up his chair, making the legs squeak across the floor. “We’re leaving in ten. If you want a ride, be ready by then.” He turned and went back to his bedroom that he shared with Lo. I didn’t move until I heard the soft click of the door.

“I don’t know how you stand to be friends with him sometimes.” That wasn’t true. Oz was an amazing friend. Actually, I wasn’t sure why he was friends with Fin. Fin was an asshole most of the time. He was better now that he had West in his life, but he was still an angry twenty-one-year-old who was likely to blow at the drop of a hat on most days.

“He’s only worried about you. He doesn’t want you to slip. We all feel that way.” Fin said without looking up from his phone.

“Even you?”

He nodded, but that was all the response I got. I knew how difficult it was for men to express their feelings, and Fin was ten times worse. It made me feel special he was worried about me.

“Thanks.” I scrapped off my food into the trashcan before I rinsed my plate and put it in the dishwasher. “I’m going to grab my bag.”

He nodded again, but this time I could see the trace of a smile at the corner of his lips.

* * *

I was sitting on the field, by myself, as I listened to my new coach talk about how this was going to be the women’s soccer team best year yet. They had a new coach, and he was going to work one on one with the offense. I didn’t care. Not anymore. Willow Bay’s soccer team wouldn’t get me the attention I needed to make it to the Olympics. It had always been a dream of mine, but that went up in smoke when I let a few choice words from my previous coaches influence me into thinking I’d be a better player and person if I lost weight. I trained more than I ever had in my life and barely ate my junior year of college.

And that was how I ended up here.

Living with my brother. Which was a thousand times better than having to live back at home with my parents. They would have smothered me to death by now. Oz and Lo had only slightly snuffed out my flame since I’d been here over the summer.

A tall, lean man, with golden skin that made every woman want to lick every single inch of it, walked toward us. All eyes moved from Coach Parker to the lithe specimen that moved toward us.

I knew that body.

Intimately.

What the hell was he doing here?

This was my safe space. Away from coaches who didn’t prioritize my well-being. Away from the memories of the man who broke my heart.

You know what? I didn’t care. I was going to make his life a living hell just like he’d made mine when he ghosted me.

Declan Hart was going to regret ever stepping foot in Willow Bay.